


Flowers Made Of Fire

by LittleMissWolfie



Series: Salman, Illinois [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 4th of July, F/M, Human AU, M/M, Skinny Dipping, Underage Drinking, absolutely based off my hometown lol, allura and lotor are part of the noble family, but it might be later, not graphic, not important here, orcharia is a made up country, pre-relationship Allura/Shiro, pre-relationship Lotor/Pidge, small town AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 20:59:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14457633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissWolfie/pseuds/LittleMissWolfie
Summary: It's the fourth of July in Salman, Illinois, and Pidge is just drunk enough to talk to Allura's cousin.





	Flowers Made Of Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I just had to write this. 
> 
> I've been pretty homesick lately since I'm so close to being done with school for the semester, and I needed to write something set in a small town, so here we go! This may just turn into a larger series if the reception is good--I have some stuff kind of planned out in my head, like backstories and everyone's families, but I won't bother writing them up if people aren't too interested. If you want more, make sure to let me know!

The night is hot and sticky in all the worst possible ways, but Pidge endures. She and her friends have all snuck out to the levy to watch the fireworks, like they do every year. Her older brother, Matt, bought beer for everyone; Shiro’s too much of a goody-two shoes for that, and Matt’s the only other one over twenty-one. Keith, at nineteen, is the next oldest. Pidge, having just turned sixteen in April, is the youngest.

Lance and Keith are competing to see who can make the loudest grass whistle and Hunk, the precious cinnamon roll that he is, is the only one deemed trustworthy enough to judge. Allura, not from their country, is still dressed in red, white, and blue, and in the dim light barely reaching them from the high school football stadium Pidge can see how Shiro tries (and fails) not to look at her generous cleavage and he and Matt speak to her.

That leaves Pidge and Lotor.

Lotor. Allura’s cousin, forced to come with her on her yearly trip to Salman, Illinois. He’s spent the last month and a half studiously trying to ignore their antics despite his being dragged everywhere with them by Allura’s attendant, Coran. Not that there is much else to do anyway. Salman is located solidly in “y’all” country, and the nearest city is an hour and a half away. With only a little over seven thousand people in town, there aren’t many public recreational areas unless you know exactly where to look. He immediately grabbed a lukewarm can of Coors Light and downed it when offered, and now on his second beer, he looks much less prickly than Pidge is used to seeing him. And, hell, she feels a little light from her half-empty can, so she sidles up to him.

“They’ll start soon,” she says, and he startles, like he wasn’t expecting anyone to talk to him. He probably wasn’t.

“What?” His voice, like Allura’s and like Coran’s, is accented; to Pidge, the accent sounds like a mix of British and Australian, though she knows exactly what it actually is after knowing Allura for nearly a decade. Ocharia used to be a British commonwealth until the late 1980s, according to a combination of sort of listening to Coran’s rambling and some basic Googling, and they never quite kicked the accent.

“The fireworks.” Pidge gestures with her beer to the tiny flares of light visible over the trees. “Wadehead’s show is winding down, and they’re an hour ahead of us.” She brings the can back to her lips and takes a quick swig, letting the burning liquid slide down her throat. She lowers herself to the slanted ground of the levy and lets the sound of the rushing river fill her ears. “God, I hate the heat. In no sensible world is it ninety degrees after eight at night.”

She’s not looking at him, her eyes fixed on a patch of dry grass in front of her, so she more feels the shift in the humid air then watches as he sits next to her. “If you hate it so much, why are you here?”

She jerks her head in the direction of the others. Lance is trying to cheat by whistling and Keith looks homicidal, and Allura is teasing Shiro by leaning forward juuuuust enough for it to be evident she isn’t wearing a bra under her wraparound top. “I love these assholes, and they usually cater to my wants so I figure once or twice a year of doing what they wanna do isn’t so bad. Besides, Dad’s a vet, so it’s either hang out here with people I actually like or sit in the stadium around people who I tolerate.”

“I’m too sober for emotional talk,” he says, a hint of humor in his voice, and Pidge laughs. “Want another beer?”

She’s still got about a quarter of a can, but she says, “If you’re offering, sure.”

* * *

 

Everyone settles down when the show actually starts. As always, the fireworks are nothing particularly special. Lance still acts like they’re the most beautiful things in the world (when they were little, he called them fire flowers because Shiro told them what they were called in Japanese), and Shiro nearly has a heart attack when a nearby spark causes a small billow of smoke in a patch of dead grass. When their ears stop ringing, they pile into Keith’s beat up old truck, sitting in each other’s laps and in the rusty truck bed, and Hunk, the only one who didn’t drink, sits behind the wheel. “Where’re we sleeping tonight?” Lance slurs, aggressively drunk.

“If we go to our place, we can skinny dip in the pool,” Matt says.

“Fuck yeah!” Lance, who is always down to get naked, cheers and Hunk, unable to say no to Lance, begins driving towards the Holt residence.

Pidge is The Favorite, being the smallest, the youngest, and the most savage out of all of them, so she gets to ride in the front of the truck. It’s her, Hunk, Lance, Keith, and Allura all in the cab, and she’s pulled into the lap of Allura, who is already sitting on Keith. Lance is sprawled across the center with his head and shoulders propped up by Pidge’s thighs and his feet in Hunk’s lap. Pidge eyes this and says, “If you give Hunk a boner, he’ll crash and we’ll all die.”

Lance splutters. Keith mutters, “At least my death would be merciful.” Allura laughs.

* * *

The house is still dark when Hunk pulls up in the driveway. Pidge knows her parents will still be out for a few more hours, hanging out at the Legion and drinking with other adults, so she tells everyone to not worry about sneaking in. They grab their bags out of the truck bed and haul them inside. Allura and Pidge will be sleeping in Pidge’s room, and the guys fight over who gets to sleep in Matt’s room and who has to sleep in the living room. In the end, only Matt and Keith get Matt’s room, because Keith drapes himself over Matt and loudly and drunkenly says, “I’m gonna get that ass tonight,” and Lance absolutely hates cockblocking and Hunk, Shiro, and Lotor are too uncomfortable to object. 

Pidge and Matt lead the way out the kitchen door and to the inground pool her parents spent their bonus checks on a few summers back. Only the Holts and Allura and Coran are wealthy enough to afford an inground pool, and since Allura and Coran just rent out the house they spend their summers in and the house is right across the street from the city pool, they don’t exactly have reason to ask for one to be installed.

As soon as Lance sees the calm water, he rips his shirt off and shoves his sweat-soaked shorts down his lanky legs. Pidge and the rest follow suit pretty quickly, and even Hunk strips down to his boxers, which is more naked than he usually gets. By the time everyone else is in the water, only Lotor remains fully clothes.

Grinning and full of liquid courage, Pidge idles by the ledge of the pool until Lotor wanders over, looking disinterested. Then her hand whips out and clutches his ankle and she pulls him into the water. When he surfaces, she laughs at him, and he takes a moment to adjust to the chlorinated water before grinning back.

And.

Wow.

Yeah, she’s fucked.


End file.
